Project Reach: Japan

(Adapted from the Japanese by James Huffman)

In 2008, Geng Zuo Wei, an inmate in a prison in China’s Yunnan Province, entered a Nippon Foundation-funded essay contest with an entry eventually received a merit award. In March 2009, Chairman Yohei Sasakawa of the Nippon Foundation visited the prison to present the award directly. Geng has entered the 2009 contest as well, with an essay on various topics, including an account of how he began studying Japanese, in which he declares his goal to do everything he can to help establish cordial relations between Japan and China. He has also written a letter to Chairman Sasakawa, discussing his resolve to live a new life after his release.

Geng Zuo Wei

In 2008, Geng entered the Sasakawa Essay Competition sponsored by the Japan Science Society and the China Youth News newspaper, on a theme of perceptions of Japan. His entry, entitled “The Spirit of a People as Seen in Little Things,” was selected as one of 18 winners from among some 6,200 entrants. Thereafter, the Chinese Ministry of Justice agreed to Chairman Sasakawa’s request to present the award in person at a ceremony at Yunnan Province’s Prison No. 2.

Chairman Sasakawa offered encouraging words in the ceremony, saying, “Once you are released,” he said, “I wish to help you as a parent would.” For his part, Geng spoke of his longing for a new start. “My sentence of hard labor has stirred in me the desire to become a respectable member of society as soon as I can.”

Geng’s essay for this year is entitled “Why I Want to Learn Japanese,” and departs from the contest’s assigned theme. Thus, it is not eligible for any of the awards. However, it describes how Geng began studying Japanese on his own in May, based on his realization that Yunnan Province, which is seeing growing numbers of tourists from Japan, faces a shortage of Japanese-speaking tour guides. After forming a study group in the prison, Geng writes, he wanted to avoid “letting down those who showed an interest in me.” He also speaks of his desire to “demonstrate my own value by building a new life and returning to society as soon as possible.”

Presentation Ceremony (Right: Chairman Sasakawa)

Geng was sentenced in 2001 to an indefinite prison term (later reduced to 15 years) for the illegal possession of drugs and for serving as a drug courier. His personal message to Chairman Sasakawa noted that he could apply for leniency in March of next year and for tentative release on bail in March 2011, when he will have served a full 10 years. The message expresses his desire to “devote myself to studying Japanese, so that the next time we meet we will not need an interpreter.”

This series of events has attracted attention as an exemplary act on the part of the Chinese government, recognizing the importance of human rights and democratization.